RACEGOER AND A CHURCHGOER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 227, 14 December 1927, Page 10

RACEGOER AND A CHURCHGOER

TALKS ON BETTING THE MECHANICAL BOOKMAKER There is.a good deal of argument in Victoria at present concerning the i totalisator and bookmaker systems cf ; betting on racecourses. Among the general remarks was found the following entribution to the “Australasian” from ; one who described himself as a racegoer and churchgoer, and vouched for ■ as the owner of 40 horses at the stud or in training. He writes: "Now, it amuses me to bet 5s or sometimes 10s on a horse, and my wife is often willing to risk another 5s to risk another na a ttfl nin lr. double my smaller bet. “I approach a bookmaker and ask the price, which is usually of course odds on, and he looks at my brown note (which will return me perhaps 8s profit if the horse wins), and, scowling, takes the bet, allowing me to notice his scorn and how much he despises me. “We can’t all be as rich as he is, but I feel my littleness acutely, and am tempted sometimes to put on the whole £l, which I have no desire to invest. I still resist the urge, because there are still plenty of layers to do business with, and they do not all despise me yet. NO BLACK LOOKS “The ‘tote’ is not human, has no Rolls-Royce to keep in running repair, and never scowls; when it comes I will be able to bet and keep a great deal of self-respect.

“Soon it seems as if odds will be asked for by the books about two or even three horses in the same race, if the present tendency grows, but the ‘tote’ (especially if as in South Africa there are two, one win only, and one place only) will be more generous, and so permit of more fun with smaller investments. I firmly believe that the ‘tote’ is an inducement to smaller betting. Betting is a folly, not a sin: it has no interest whatever in preventing a horse winning, and promotes honesty; it never beguiles the public to lose by making false favourites (shouting is an advertisement, and it pays to advertise); and, lastly, it benefits horses and the State. “I’m not running down the bookmakers, they are almost all honest, and pay with a smile and win without one (because they are accustomed to it); but when a man with a. quiet nod puts a thousand on a horse it is unobserved by the public, and only reflected in the odds thereafter called, whereas a thousand put on the ‘tote’ is at once observed by the queue behind him, and the price is ruined. This man’s betting will be curtailed at once, and he may even try to earn something by a job of work.”